Wednesday, May 30, 2018

Security In Iraq May 22-28, 2018

Security continues to fluctuate in Iraq month to month. From
January to March there was a slight uptick in attacks compared to the end of
2017. In April, incidents dropped by 20 per week, only to see those figures
increase slightly in May. The news of the 3rd week of the month was
a large number of suicide bombings. There were 3 such attacks with a total of 6
bombers across Baghdad, Diyala and Kirkuk, the most since the third week of
September 2017.

From May 22-28, 2018, there were 51 incidents reported. That
compared to 51 the first week of May, 58 the second with the third weeks’ 38
being an outlier.

Security Incidents In Iraq By
Province May 22-28, 2018

Babil
1

Kurdistan
3

Baghdad
7

Salahaddin
7

Ninewa
8

Diyala
11

Kirkuk
14

Casualties In Iraq By
Province May 22-28, 2018

Kurdistan
12 (10 K, 2)

Salahaddin
12 (8 K, 4 W)

Diyala
13 (10 K, 3 W)

Ninewa
26 (22 K, 4 W)

Kirkuk
30 (12 K, 18 W)

Baghdad
31 (11 K, 20 W)

There were 73 deaths and 51 wounded during the week. 19
civilians were pulled from the debris in west Mosul leaving 54 violent deaths
during the week. 2 Turkish soldiers, 5 Hashd al-Shaabi, 8 members of the
Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), 11 Iraqi Security Forces, and 47 civilians lost
their lives, while 2 Turkish Soldiers, 4 Hashd, 22 ISF, and 23 civilians were
injured.

For the first time since probably before the 2003 invasion
there were no incidents reported in Anbar.

Baghdad saw 7 incidents including a suicide
bomber that hit
a café in the Shula area leaving 7 dead and 16 wounded. The previous week
there was a suicide bombing as well. The last time there was a similar such
successful attack was in January. The capital has been relatively quiet since
the start of March so these two bombings were a decided change from the normal
security situation. 2
IEDs also went off at the Communist Party headquarters, which was likely a
political incident after its victory with the Sadrists in the May election.

Diyala also witnessed a suicide
bombing when the Islamic State attacked
a town in the Khanqin district in the northeast. The militants also burned
crops in two towns during the week. That might have been done to intimidate the
local farmers, or have been a warning to pay protection money to the insurgents
or both.

Kirkuk was the third province to be hit by suicide bombers.
8 were intercepted
by the security forces with four being killed, but the other four set off their
devices leading to 2 ISF deaths and 15 wounded. Also like in Diyala, the
militants burned
wheat fields in a village. They also executed
a village leader, bombed
a sheikh’s residence, shot
up a Hashd’s home, and blew
up some electricity towers. These are all part of IS’s attempt to re-assert
itself in the rural areas of the governorate.

There were more clashes between Turkey and the PKK in
northern Kurdistan. In total 2 Turkish soldiers and 8 PKK members were killed,
and 2 Turkish soldiers wounded in 3 incidents.

Although there were just 8 incidents in Ninewa, five were
gun battles with insurgents, and another group of fighters got intercepted
attempting to infiltrate across the border with Syria. There were also more
bodies pulled from the rubble of the Old City district of West Mosul. 75 were discovered
on May
22, 103 on May 24,
and 19 more on May
24. Civil Defense forces that are responsible for this work told the press
that 1,199 bodies, a mix of civilians and IS members had been found in just the
last week. Government officials have said for weeks that the Old City was
cleared of corpses, but these large numbers showed that the job is far from
finished.

The security forces started a security sweep through
Mteibiji in Salahaddin that began with a tragedy
when an IED
killed the police chief of the Alam district, which is outside of Tikrit and
three other officers. There were also two shoot outs with insurgents, and a
mukhtar was assassinated.

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About Me

Musings On Iraq was started in 2008 to explain the political, economic, security and cultural situation in Iraq via original articles and interviews. If you wish to contact me personally my email is: motown67@aol.com